Before Us All
by Theljiljka
Summary: Anna has been a part of the Military for a while now, but is starting to get sick of it. She wants to go with the fireflies, but how? What did she do, before she became Ellie's mother? (Didn't know what genres to pick, I plan to have lots of everything, really)
1. Peaceful in Hell

**Heyy there! After finishing TLOU several times, I realized that we know nothing about Ellies mother, Anna. How did she join the fireflies? Who's Ellies father? What happened to her after the infection? I plan to answer all those questions. Please, drop a review. Like everyone else here, I'd like to know what I'm doing good and what I'm doing wrong. Thank you!**

Anna woke up in the middle of the night. She blinked a few times, rolled from her stomach to her side, and let out a soft groan. Waking up like this wasn't uncommon- she had always had trouble sleeping ever since the outbreak - so she had gotten used to it. Still though, being able to sleep for more than a few hours sounded wonderful to her.

She pulled herself out of bed and placed two feet on the cold, cement floor. She lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment with her nephew. It looked bad- paint peeling off the walls, mold growing in the damp corners and stains of God knows what on the floors- but then again, so did every other apartment too. It took the world less than a week to go to shit, less than two to try to overthrow the government, and less than a month to establish QT zones. The fireflies were stronger than ever, and Anna was even considering joining them. She worked as one of the guards in the QT zone and hated every second of it. It was a dirty job for ruthless people. If she had any other option, she'd go with it in a heartbeat. They were almost as bad as the infected, as far as she was concerned.

Maybe she could take Nate and run. It would be better, right? Her job now did have advantages-she got paid well in ration cards and had a safe apartment-but the quarantine zone was still far from the life that she wanted her nephew to have. Public executions of alleged fireflies just so the cops could remind people who ran the quarantine zone, people begging for cards so that they could feed their children, smugglers, murderers and other horrid things weren't what a young boy should be seeing every day.

Let's say she did decide to go with the fireflies. What then? Where would she find one? How would she get out of the city? Did the fireflies have a quarantine zone, and if so, was it any better than this one?

She couldn't think about these things in three in the morning.

She made her way to Nate's room. She slowly pushed his door open, making sure to not wake him up.

His room was a bit better than hers- he had a bed (Anna just had a mattress), a small wooden desk, a clock and a lamp. He had a window that he kept open during the night, despite Anna's constant telling him to close it because he could catch a cold. He was rebellious, just like his mother.

He looked like her, too. His chocolate hair, green eyes, soft cheekbones, button nose and freckles made him look so much like Anna's sister that it hurt. She missed her more than she could put into words.

_I've kept my promise all these years, Paige. I always will._

She forced herself to stop thinking about her sister. She'd cry if she didn't.

The clocked showed that it was 3:24AM. She had a night shift, she needed the sleep.

_**20 hours later**_

The quarantine zone was split into 8 areas. Area 1 was the military base, 2 was storage (food, clothes, ammo etc could all be found there, so it was always heavily guarded), 3 was electricity and 4-8 were apartments. It was one of the biggest zones in the country, and they planned on expanding.

Right now, she was patrolling area 7. It was easily the emptiest part of the QTZ- there were at least half a block of abandoned, crumbling buildings, decorated with thick layers of mold and vines that only added to the uneasy feeling the place gave off. For some unknown, illogical reason, the military hadn't destroyed it yet. It was perfect for selling and doing illegal things, and having one officer patrol it was far from enough.

She took out her walkman (an old man sold it to her, along with the tiny cassettes that you'd put into it, and in return she gave him a few rounds of ammo) and played a cassette with some up-beat jazz. It really wasn't the kind of music she liked, but it was much better than nothing.

Just as she was about to put in her second earphone, she saw light coming from a 3 floor house to her left. It vanished as quickly as it appeared, followed by some strange shuffling.

Then, silence.

Anna's hands tightened around her gun. She pulled out her radio and spoke into it:

"This is patrol 26 calling in, I'm seeing some strange stuff in an old, unstable house. Please advise"

"_Patrol 26 please state your exact location"_

"I think I'm at 34 Parkers street"

"_We'll send another patrol officer over, until then go into the house and see what the disturbance was"_

"Understood"

_Fucking idiots, do they want to get me killed?_

She didn't have much of a choice. She turned on her flashlight and made her way to the concrete house.

The closer she got to it, the more it seemed to stand out. It looked better kept than the other houses. All of the windows were smashed and there was no door, though, so Anna got in without a problem.

The first room she got into was the living room. It seemed to be some rich guys house before it went to shit. Its high ceilings, big rooms, and rotting yet expensive-looking furniture made it look better than the others. She used wonder what living in a house like this must have been like, but she stopped hoping for anything after the 'infection' broke out.

She made her way to the kitchen. Once again, everything looked very old and very posh.

What caught her attention, though, was the opened cans of food still sitting on the table.

She picked one up and examined it. It still had a spoon in it. 'ANDERSONS BAKED BEANS' the can label read. The liquid from the beans was still fresh. She then made her way to a cupboard and opened it. Surely enough, it had cans of food in it. The drawer under it contained a few knives, forks and spoon inside it

_These would have been stolen by now. Someone still lives here_

Probably smugglers or black-market dealers. If it was one of the two, she'd have to pay attention. They always had guns on them and were never afraid to fight back. She knew all too well from personal experience.

She now had two options: The basement, or the upper floors. _Fuck it, lets get the basement over with._

She placed her hand on the knob and opened it. She made her way down the damp stairs, careful not to slip on the marble they were made out of. When she got down, she heard some shuffling to her left.

She pointed her flashlight and her gun at the direction it came from.

"Hands where I can see 'em!" she yelled

Carefully, a woman came out from behind a desk, her hands raised above her head.

She had brown skin and black, curly hair tied back into a bun of some sorts. She was young, about Anna's age. She wore a dark, sleeveless shirt over a white, short-sleeved one, cargo pants and boots. Her arms were covered with scars and dirt. It was obvious she had just been through hell.

She also wore an unmistakable pendant around her neck.

_Fireflies? _

"Who is she?" A smaller, higher-pitched voice asked. Anna hadn't even noticed the child that was clutching on to the woman's pants for dear life- a little boy, no older than eight, with blond hair and dirt on his face.

"Stay back Andrew", the woman muttered.

"You're fireflies, aren't you?" Anna asked, as if she didn't already know the answer

"I'm begging you, don't do this! He's just a boy!"

Anna took a deep breath. "Are there any more of you?"

"For the love of God-"

"I asked if there were any fucking more of you!"

The woman hesitated. "We have a girl sleeping in the other room"

Just as the woman finished, someone started shouting from above:

"Hey Anna, you there?"

_Fuck, they're already here._

"Yeah, I'll be up in a sec" Anna replied. She turned back to the woman:

"Listen here, that's my buddy up there, and if he sees you here, you're not getting out alive. Do you have a way out of here?"

"Y-y-yes," The woman pointed to a closet, "There's a tunnel there that leads outside-"

"Good. Get your girl and get out of here."

The woman didn't move

"I said, get the fuckin' hell out of here!"

She slowly moved towards a door to her left. Anna was still keeping her at gunpoint, just in case. She came out ten seconds later, hand-in-hand with a girl that seemed to be in her mid-teens. The girl was in complete shock.

The woman walked up to the closet and started pushing it. It made a loud _**screech **_sound that made Anna cringe. Anna was surprised that the old thing didn't crumble when she pushed it. When it had been pushed it about two feet, she called for the boy and the girl to come over to her. The two quickly made their way into the small hole, and the woman followed, but not before pathetically thanking Anna for sparing her life.

After they made their way into the hole, Anna pushed the closet back into place.

_Great job Anna, you just help a Goddamn firefly escape the city. Someone finds out, you'll end up with a few bullets in your head. Good going_


	2. The World Through My Eyes

**A/N: So someone asked me what Anna looked like. Here's what I imagine:**

**She has wavy, dirt-blonde hair that goes to about half her neck. Her face is round, she has the same button nose and green eyes as Nathan. Her cheeks are round and have light freckles on them. She's thin, but has some muscle on her. She's about average height. She bites her nails, so they're always short. Her lips are small and bright pink. Her skin is slightly paler than normal.**

Nathan would've described the military base as depressing, but that would have been an understatement.

With its massive concrete yard and its 10 wide floors, it was the biggest building in the entire QTZ, matched only by the half-empty warehouse. It was made of a mixture of concrete and metal, with steel rods sticking out from it. A 4 meter fence charged with electricity and laced with barbwire boldly brought out its outline. Guards were posted on cement pillars, each of them holding an AK-47 (where the hell did they even find so many guns?) and wearing bulletproof vests and helmets.

He imagined this was what concentration camps used to look like.

A part of the base was used as a school to train future military members. If school used to be how Anna described, than it was a whole lot different now. His aunt said she learned things like shape surfaces and old English literature. He learned how to shoot guns.

Sometimes, if his teachers made them stay late for more training or felt like giving them an extra hard time, he'd sleep there. They had several very small rooms, each containing nothing but a bunk bed. The rooms were meant for the orphans that the military took in, but quite a few of them were empty, so he used those. He couldn't stand the crammed space and the smell, so he didn't do it often. Maybe once every few weeks.

He looked away from the structure and clutched his backpack. It was an old thing- its red color had faded out and it was patterned with grass, dirt, food and all kinds of other stains. It wasn't that big, but then again, it didn't need to be. It contained a (now empty) water bottle, a knife, a flashlight, a 9mm handgun(He wasn't allowed to have it, but the QTZ wasn't exactly safe, even with the military everywhere), a few rounds of ammo he stole and a copy of _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea._ The book was at least a decade old, but he didn't dare throw it away. It held too many memories. He didn't know how many time he read it-he lost count after the fifth time.

A drop of water brought him out of his trance. _Jeez, it's raining already?_ He pulled up the hood on his grey hoodie and made his way back to the apartment.

_XXXX_

Anna was sitting at the kitchen table with loads of papers stacked in front of her. Her feet were on the table and her hands were rubbing her temple. She'd been working on it for the past few hours. Why couldn't she get a break? _Hundreds of people die every day, why do we have to write so much useless shit about it? _She dangled her head backwards and let out a loud groan.

"I see you're having fun" she jumped at the voice. Nate was standing behind her, a grin on his face.

"What on earth are you doing home so early? It's not even-" she looked at the clock," –three?"

He walked over to the table and placed his backpack on it, then sat down in a chair.

"Teacher let us home early. We have to spend the night at the base to practice shooting in the dark. I can't wait" he said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

He grabbed the bottle of water near him and chugged it down.

Anna bit her lower lip. "You know you don't have to do this, right?"

He gave her a confused look.

"I mean, if it's such a strain on you, you can always drop out."

He lifted his eyebrows and placed his elbows on the table. "What would I do then?"

"I don't know Nate, I'd put you in the normal school. We'd figure something out. I just don't want you to be unhapp-"

He cut her off "Listen, I know you care, but you don't have to worry so much. We both know that if it made me miserable, I'd be out in a heartbeat."

It was true. Nathan didn't waste his time on things that bothered him, he never saw the point. He was quick to stop talking to people that bored him, he quit any sport that was stupid to him and never finished a book he didn't like. He was like this as long as Anna could remember.

A silence broke out between them for a few seconds before he continued:

"Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go catch some sleep. Wake me up in a few hours?"

She let out a soft smile. "You know it"

_XX Hours later XX_

Nathan squeezed water out of this hair, then dried it with a towel. There were only two things he liked about the base: The hot showers and the soap. You could only take a short shower once a week, due to the small water supply, but it was better than nothing. During the other days, he'd just wipe himself over with a wet towel, and that was far from enough. He was quite muscular, just like the rest of the guys and girls at the military school, due to the hard trainings they did every day. Making someone sweat so much and then denying them a shower was cruelty in his book.

He put on his pajamas- an old shirt and some shorts and made his way to his room. He opened the door to his room and found his friend, Aaron on the top bunk reading something. The second Aaron saw him, he shoved the magazine under his pillow.

"Someone's looking good" The ginger joked, "Why don't you strike a few poses for me, model-boy?"

Nathan chuckled. He'd known Aaron for a while now, and the two had become best friends. _And all this time, he hasn't changed a bit_

"When do we have to get up tomorrow?" Nate asked

"No clue. Maybe they'll let us get more than six hours of sleep tonight"

"That's the best joke you've ever told"

Nate made his way to his friend's pillow. He saw the corner of the magazine stuck out. He grabbed it and pulled it out.

"Ohh, what do we have here?" He asked teasingly. The cover read _**PlayBoy**_

"Hey, gimme that!" Aaron shouted

"What's this? Miss December has a secret!" Nathan quickly flipped through the pages, laughing as his friend tried to tackle him.

"Stop being a dick and give me it!"

Nathan held the magazine in one hand and held back his friend with the other. His friends ivory skin was now a bright red. A knock on the door averted his attention, and Aaron seized the opportunity to snatch it from Nathan's hands.

The door opened. Hazel, one of the other students(if you could even call them that) appeared. Her legs and hands were crossed and her face was painted with annoyance.

"Guess what Johnson," she said, referring to Aaron, "Me and you are patrolling the halls tonight"

"What? That's bullshit!" he protested.

"Quite the astute observation," Nathan mummerd sarcastically.

Hazel shifted her weight and leaned on their doorframe. "Apparently, there's been some 'suspicious activity' going on. We start at 2AM sharp"

"Suspicious activity?" Nathan asked, "Fireflies?"

"Don't know, they wouldn't tell me."

_XXXX_

Anna woke up to the sound alarms and someone yelling through her walkie-talkie.

_All officers to arms. I repeat, all officers to arms. There are infected in the quarantine zone. I repeat, there are infected in the quarantine zone. Do not go near the military base._

Anna jumped out of bed.

_Nathan_

**A/N2: I know this chapter is mostly about Nathan, but I feel like he's an interesting character to work with. No worries, I plan to write much, much more about Anna in the following chapters!**

**A/N3: I was thinking about writing a chapter that tells us what happened when the infection first got to Anna's town (What happened to her sister, where she went after that etc.) What do you guys think? Please let me know! Reviews are very much appreciated and they keep me motivated to write, so if you could drop one, I'd be really thankful!**


	3. For the Ones we Love

Anna ran down the stairs as fast as she could. She had a million thoughts going through her mind: How did the infection get in here? How bad was it? Could they contain it? Was it too late?

_Where is Nathan?_

Anna worried so much about him, mostly for no reason. He was 16, strong, clever and could shoot a gun as good as she could, maybe even better. Nathan was beyond capable, so why did she panic a little bit every time he went out without telling her? Why did she check on him at least twice every night to make sure he was there? Why did she give him a gun and make sure he had it with him all the time?

Because she had no one else. She lost all touch with her friends after the infection, her sister had passed away and her parents were long gone. She didn't have anyone to care about but him. She could almost hear her sister's voice

_Promise me you'll keep him safe_

_I'm trying Paige. I'm trying_

That boy was everything and everyone she cared about, and like fucking hell she was going to let something happen to him.

She stormed out of the building.

It was much worse than she had expected. Solders were running around, shooting infected and even civilians. They were closing up buildings and setting them on fire, killing everyone inside. People were running around in every direction, desperately looking for a way out of the QT zone

_Everyone is screaming_

_Children are hiding_

_People on fire_

_The car is on fire_

_The first night_

_No escape_

Anna felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest. Her hands were shaking and her knees were locked.

_You left your sister behind._

_God fucking damn it! Get yourself together! Focus on now!_

Right, now.

Right now a runner was coming for her. She shot him in the head, and he fell down like a stack of cards

It's OK Anna, you're doing great. Now get to the base and find Nathan.

She cleared her mind. The base. Yeah, the base, she knew where that was. If she ran like hell, she could be there in ten minutes.

And so she did.

**_XXEARLIERXX_**

Nathan woke up to the sound of screaming and gunfire. He shot up, smacking his head on the top bunk. He saw stars for a moment, but quickly snapped back into reality. He rubbed his forehead. _I hate these stupid beds._

When he heard nothing for ten seconds, he assumed he had just had a bad dream. Was there a person out there that didn't have nightmares? Probably not. Every time he shared a room with someone, they'd always mutter in their sleep. They'd say names. They'd tell people to run. Their hands sometimes clenched into fists. He didn't know a person that hadn't lost someone, or even everyone to the cordyceps. _How did people keep on going? How did they find the strength in them to do it?_ It took him years to get over losing his family. Hell, he still wasn't over it.

That's why he still kept the stupid book.

He rubbed his eyes. He was about to go to sleep when Aaron slammed the door open.

"Get the fuck up, we're leaving!" He yelled. Aaron looked like hell- his face and clothes were splashed in blood. The red-head held a gun firmly in his hand, and his face was plastered with a worried expression. Nathan looked at his friend in shock "Did you hear me? Put on your shoes, we gotta go!"

He didn't question his friend's orders. He started putting his sneakers on right away. "What's going on?!"

"It got in. It fucking got in. I don't know how, but it did, and n-n-now-" Aaron paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Nathan had never seen him so upset in his life.

He placed two hands on his friends shoulders. "Calm down, what got in?"

"The cordyceps. Half the facility has gone mad"

Nathan could feel all the blood rush from his face. _The MB is the most secure place in the entire city. If the infection is here…_

He wasted no time getting his gun out of his backpack and loading it. He put the backpack on his shoulders and prepared to fight.

"What about everyone else?" He asked.

"I don't know and I don't care. I'm clearing us a path. How many rounds do you have left?"

"Enough. Where to?"

"Hazel said she's ring the alarm, so evacuation's gonna start soon. Let's get to the garage and grab a car"

Aaron started move, but Nathan stood in place. "What about my aunt?"

Aaron let out a sigh "She's a part of the military, right? I'm sure she's left the quarantine zone by now-hell, she's probably waiting for us outside now. Let's just hurry up"

His friend was bullshitting him, Nathan knew, but what was the other option? Anna could be anywhere by now- there wasn't any point in trying to look for her.

He unhappily followed him down the hall.

**_XXXX_**

Anna slammed the doors open so hard that they almost broke. A few runners came after her, but she gunned them down without a problem using her assault rifle. _How the fuck are there so many of these things?_ She knew the cordyceps could spread like wildfire-she'd seen it herself. That mushroom or whatever the hell it was was worse than the black plague. She'd heard stories about how when an infected bites you, you don't even feel it after a few seconds. They had numbing stuff in their spit or something like that. From what she'd seen, it was probably true, too. This was exactly how others got infected- the ignorance and carelessness of one was enough to kill thousands of people only trying to survive.

_Alright, where now? He could be anywhere in this hellhole._ Her best bet was to make it to the top floor- there they had multiple screens that monitored most of the military base. She could find him from there.

She made her way to the elevator and smashed the button as hard as she could. _C'mon, hurry up!_ She could have taken the stairs, but the other floors were undoubtedly crawling with infected and she wasted most of her ammo getting here. _How the hell did you manage to forget your handgun?_

After what seemed like forever, the elevator opened, giving Anna an unwelcoming sight.

A person, probably a man judging by the build, was lying dead on the floor. A crowbar lay next to him, covered in red liquid from the pool of blood underneath it. More was dribbling from his smashed-in head that dangled to his left side. _Poor bastard probably turned, and someone had to take him down._

She unwillingly got into the elevator and pressed the worn-out button that had a **10** boldly written on it.

It made an uncomfortable sound, somewhat of a crack before it started to move.

Anna looked around the contraption. She had been in it only a few times- the piece of junk was only used for transporting cargo to save electricity. It was beyond ugly-the metal walls that were painted with vulgar drawings looked twice her age. It didn't even have a door. It screeched when it moved and the man lying on the floor only added to the charm.

Anna leaned against the railing. _Just you and me, huh buddy?_

The elevator had been moving for only ten seconds before it came to a sudden stop.

She heard some voices yelling to each other. She couldn't make out what they were saying- they were too far away- but they sounded like they were in a hurry. It wasn't until she heard a snap that she realized that they were coming from the top of the elevator shaft.

Her face went pale

_They're cutting the fucking cords_

"Hey, hey! Someone's still in here!" She yelled out of desperation

It wasn't helping. She continued to hear the faint sawing noise that meant her death. Without hesitation, she took the crowbar out of the pool of blood and started banging on the walls, trying to make as much racket as she could. There wasn't a chance in hell that those bastards up there didn't hear her, but they didn't stop. If anything, they cut faster.

She desperately looked for a way out. Getting out of the escape hatch wouldn't help- they were sawing the wires too high up for her to make it up before she fell.

The cords snapped one by one, until finally the elevator started to fall and Anna started free-flying. When it smashed into the ground, her head hit the railing. The last thing she felt was a cold sensation before her vision went blurry

**A/N: I imagine Anna has PTSD, so that's why I wrote the first part like that.**

**A/N2: Even though this isn't one of the more popular fics, I plan to update it every 3-5 days(I'll try to make as much time for writing as I can, sorry if I update it a bit late!). I'd like to thank the people that reviewed it, you really give me motivation to continue writing! Thanks again!**


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